The Genius | #1✓ [SAMPLE]

Chapter 2

During the next day of school, the vice-principal called me into her office to ask me to show Ji-Hun around. I'd given her a small smile, not sure if I should be happy or annoyed at being assigned to do something like that. It meant I would miss some classes, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.

"I guess I'm showing you around," I muttered, spotting Ji-Hun in the reception of the vice principal's office as I stepped out. He looked up, giving me a toothy grin before getting up from the red sofa with his backpack. He was wearing blue faded jeans with a white and gray check shirt that had the first few buttons undone to expose a gray tank top.

"Did she give you a hall pass?" he asked as I opened the door that led into the hallway. I walked out, humming a small yes in reply as he closed the door behind him.

I followed him to his locker, waiting for him to put away his books so I could go ahead with showing him around. I sighed, thinking about the notes I wouldn't be able to take. I bit my lip, deciding that I would text Ben and ask him to help me take notes, or I could miraculously bump into him in the crowd of students and ask him then. Yeah, that would do just fine.

I gave a sigh of relief when Ji-Hun shut his locker. I had started to get a slight headache from the noise students were making in the hallway and I was more than desperate to leave.

"Let's go then, I don't like being in crowds," I complained as Ji-Hun tucked away his key. For a straight minute, I thought his eyes held some sort of worry but I narrowed my eyes at him to make sure I wasn't imagining things and it was gone just as fast — odd.

I lead him out of the school building for a short trek to the school's basketball/volleyball court. The bell for the start of classes went soon after, the sound faint to us because of the distance of the school building from us and its brick walls.

"I can't believe I'm missing class," I sighed, using a hand to block out the sun from the screen of my phone as I composed a text to Ben asking him to help me take notes. Ji-Hun shrugged beside me, stopping at my side as he waited for me to complete my text. He kicked stationary rocks about with his jean sneakers as he waited for me. I soon put my phone away and made it clear that we could keep going.

"Here we are," I said as we got to the gates of the basketball court.

"It's locked," I sighed, spotting the lock on the blot.

Ji-Hun hummed, before laughing lightly at the situation. "We can see everything from here, I don't see how that's a problem."

I chuckled, understanding his point. I looked through the wire gate and into the court. The basket was leaning forward from its pole. Its condition was probably subject to the number of students that tried to show off by grabbing onto the ring to make a stylish basket. The blue and white paint on the clay floor of the court was both fading and chipping, but the important lines were still very much visible.

"If we're done looking at chipped paint can we go somewhere else?" Ji-Hun asked, earning a smile from me. He came off as sort of cocky and friendly all around. I liked it.

I showed him the soccer field next. We hung out by one of the goalposts as we chattered away about nothing in particular. It was weird being comfortable around anyone but Aiyana and Ben. Ji-Hun had a habit of jumping from topic to topic and he also picked the right time to make jokes.

We headed back to the school building soon after, making the long journey to the third floor to check out the labs. We couldn't enter the chemistry lab because seniors were having a lab class at the moment but we got to enter the biology lab.

Ji-Hun messed around with the skeleton, making it stay in silly poses. When he got bored he headed over to disarrange the organs of the school's human model. A small part of me wanted to tell him to stop touching things but the part of me that was amused by the puns and jokes he made while inspecting one of the model's organs was much stronger.